FX Plus 500 – Are They Trustworthy?
Stop! It’s a Scam! Your money is not safe if you are trading with this unregulated, off-shore broker.
FX Plus 500 - DO NOT TRADE WITH THIS PROVIDER
2.3/10
$100
Minimum Depositupdated 2023
The details for opening trading accounts are not indicated on the broker’s website. In order to register with this broker, you only need to go to their sign-up page where you’ll be asked to enter your name, email address, phone number, and password. You’ll also be asked to accept their Terms and Conditions and confirm that you’re over 18 years of age. After this, the trading platform will be made available for you and you can start trading using their demo account.
82% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money
Plus500 is a FTSE 250 listed brokerage providing online trading services in CFDs, across 2,000+ securities and multiple asset classes.
Website URL: https://fxplus500.co.uk
Founded: 2023
Regulations: Unlicensed
Languages: English
Deposit Methods: Bank Transfer, Visa, MasterCard, Other Payment Options (but not specified)
Minimum Deposit: $1,000
Free Demo Account: No
Number of Assets: 2,800+ (Subject to Jurisdiction)
Types of Assets: FX, Cryptos, Indices, Stocks, Commodities
Trading Accounts and Conditions
According to FX Plus 500’s Trading Plan page, the following are the account types that this broker offers:
- Basic: The minimum deposit is $1,000. You are promised a daily profit of 3% to 4%. The leverage is 1:25.
- Silver: The minimum deposit is $10,000. You get an up to 30% Bonus and are promised a daily profit of 4% to 6%. The leverage is 1:25. You are granted one free monthly withdrawal.
- Gold: The minimum deposit is $25,000. And you are promised a daily profit of 6% to 8%. You also get a bonus of up to 50%. The leverage is 1:25, but if you opt for having your account managed by the broker, then the leverage offered is 1:5. You are granted a free weekly withdrawal.
- Platinum: The minimum deposit is $50,000. You are granted one free weekly withdrawal. You get a bonus of up to 75%. The leverage is 1:25, but if you opt for a managed account, then that leverage is 1:10. You are offered a Platinum Market access, which allows you to execute orders faster. You are promised a daily profit of 8% to 10%.
- VIP: The minimum deposit is $250,000. You do no need to pay any trading or withdrawal fees. The managed account leverage is 1:25. You get one fully protected trade per month. You are promised a daily profit of up to 15%.
FX Plus 500 – Advantages
There are no advantages to trading with FX Plus 500.
FX Plus 500 – Disadvantages
Given below are all the reasons why it would be a really bad idea to do business with FX Plus 500:
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Blacklisted and Unregulated Clone Firm
The first thing that tell us that FX Plus 500 is a scam operation is the fact that this broker is unregulated and blacklisted by one of the top financial regulators in the world, the Financial Conduct Authority of the UK. Here is how we know.
Legitimate brokers provide clear as well as detailed corporate and licensing information on their website. And the information can be corroborated easily, if anyone wishes to check. With Scammers, this is not the case.
With FX Plus 500, the broker claims to be regulated by multiple financial authorities: the FCA in the UK, the ASIC in Australia, the FMA in New Zealand, the FSCA in South Africa, the FSA in Seychelles, the FSRA of Estonia, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the Dubai FSA and even the CySEC from Cyprus.
The Indian address is a dead giveaway. To be regulated by the FCA and other regulators, brokers need to have a physical base in that country.
Additionally, we checked the online registers of all the authorities and found out that the FCA in the UK had blacklisted this broker as a scammer. According to the financial regulator, FX Plus 500 has been using a legitimate company’s credentials and passing them off as their own – this means that this broker is actually a clone firm. For this, the FCA has blacklisted this broker in the UK.
We found out that the CySEC has also banned this firm for the same reasons. There is no record of this broker on any of the other financial regulators’ registers.
All of this information tells us that we are dealing with a clone firm, the worst kind of a scammer.
82% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money
Plus500 is a FTSE 250 listed brokerage providing online trading services in CFDs, across 2,000+ securities and multiple asset classes.
The company was created as a combined effort of financial professionals and experts in web-commerce with the goal of perfecting the online experience for retail traders.
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No Trading Software
FX Plus 500 does not even have the most important tool that a forex broker offers – a working trading platform. The broker does not mention anything about their trading platform. And we were unable to open an account with this broker. Every time we tried to open an account with them, we kept getting error messages. So, we could not check for ourselves whether this broker even has any kind of a trading platform.
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Issues with Trading Conditions
Even if we did not have enough evidence of this broker’s scam, their trading conditions would be another giveaway.
The minimum deposit requirement is so high that it is a clear red flag. Most brokers today have minimum deposit requirements that range from $100 to $250. And then, a lot of the leading brokerage also allow you to open accounts with them for less than $50. So, this $1,000 requirement is just plain ridiculous.
The spreads mentioned apply to cryptocurrencies, and they are also much too high. Regular forex spreads are not mentioned anywhere, which is another red flag, since this broker claims to offer trading in a wide range of assets.
Other trading conditions are completely skipped. We do not know what the commissions, fees, order execution methods and so on are.
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Managed Accounts
This broker offers to manage your trading account for you. This is illegal, since this becomes a conflict of interest. Brokers make money when you lose money on the market. Therefore, if the broker manages your account, then they can easily manipulate things so that you keep losing money and they keep making money!
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Issues with Payments
On their website the broker shows us logos of 3 payments providers – Visa, MasterCard and Bank Transfer. And there is an asterisked statement below those three logos, where the broker claims of offer a wide range of payment options – none of them are mentioned, though.
We could not find any other information about their payment options, withdrawal conditions, and other payment related policies. Another red flag that we are dealing with a scammer.
Conclusion
FX Plus 500 may claim many things, but the truth of the matter is that this broker is yet another one of the thousands of scammers that crowd the forex market space. This is a broker that all traders must avoid.
Do not trade with unregulated brokers that will steal your funds - try these regulated brokers:
82% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money
Plus500 is a FTSE 250 listed brokerage providing online trading services in CFDs, across 2,000+ securities and multiple asset classes.
The company was created as a combined effort of financial professionals and experts in web-commerce with the goal of perfecting the online experience for retail traders.
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